Man City Blink: Liverpool go top as Chelsea beat City

This weekend always threatened to be one of the big ones when it came to the title race and that's exactly how it panned out as Chelsea beat Manchester City and Mo Salah buried a hat-trick for Liverpool.

Mo Salah dashes past the Bournemouth defencePhoto: Getty Images

Manchester City have finally blinked. Pep Guardiola's previously unbeaten juggernaut have crashed to their first loss of the season as Chelsea proved too good at home, allowing Liverpool to take top spot after a Mo Salah-inspired thrashing of Bournemouth.

It's proved a massive week for Liverpool. Five points behind City heading into last Sunday's Merseyside derby, it appeared they were finally going to fall behind City as Everton looked like holding on for the draw.

In the end, a freak goal from Divock Origi gave the Reds a last-gasp victory before wins to both teams midweek saw them enter this weekend as two of just seven sides in English top-flight history to have achieved a minimum 39 points after 15 matches.

With such an epic battle going on for the top spot, the Premier League may be decided by the barest of margins and this weekend could prove a turning point as Liverpool headed to the south coast for the early Saturday match against Bournemouth.

The Cherries were hit by an early blow on Saturday, though, as news filtered through that top scorer Callum Wilson would miss with a hamstring injury and his absence proved critical as Bournemouth offered little in attack, while at the other end Liverpool ran rampant.

The Reds were somewhat fortunate to open the scoring in the first half as Mo Salah was offside when he drilled the rebound as Asmir Begovic could only parry away Roberto Firmino's powerful strike.

But there was nothing wrong with Salah's second just three minutes after the break as he burst between two defenders to hit the back of the net.

The match got completely away from Bournemouth soon after as Cherries defender Steve Cook back-heeled the ball into his own net while attempting a clearance in the 68th minute, while Salah finished off his hat-trick 13 minutes from time, although he made hard work of it as the tweet below shows.

The win saw Liverpool leapfrog City into top spot on the table with a one-point advantage, but the Sky Blues were expected to hit back when they faced Chelsea, even if they faced a difficult task on the road at Stamford Bridge.

Despite missing injured striker Sergio Aguero, City started with intent and completely dominated the first half, only to be stunned on the stroke of half-time as Ngolo Kante slammed one into the back of the net from Eden Hazard's pass.

And, the Blues made sure of the result when David Luiz glanced home a looping header with 12 minutes remaining, leaving City in second as Chelsea consolidated fourth, finding themselves just eight points off the top after a disappointing midweek loss to Wolves.

There still might be more to come from this game too as Chelsea fans disgracefully racially abused City's Raheem Sterling at one point.

In the Saturday night game, third-placed Tottenham proved too good for Leicester City (eighth) with a comfortable 2-0 win inspired by a classy performance from Son Heung-min, who scored one cracking goal in first-half injury time before setting up Delle Alli for the second after half-time.

It may have been a controversial week for fifth-placed Arsenal after the publication of ill-advised nightclub photos, but the Gunners still maintained their unbeaten run as Lucas Torreira's stunning overhead goal gave them a late 1-0 win over Huddersfield (18th).

On Friday night, Jose Mourinho's manager started talking about the manager's future and his sixth-placed Manchester United side responded by hammering last-placed Fulham 4-1 with new Cottagers boss Claudio Ranieri describing the result as '11 lambs against 11 wolves'.

Cardiff City (14th) and Burnley (17th) both ground out 1-0 wins over Southampton (19th) and Brighton (11th) in results that could prove important to the relegation battle, while West Ham climbed to 10th after coming from behind to claim a 3-2 win over London rival Crystal Palace (16th).

In an entertaining affair, Felipe Anderson scored a well-deserved winner with a superb strike in the 65th minute to make it 3-1 before Jeffrey Schlupp's 76th-minute goal made it a nervy finish for Hammers' fans.

City's loss, though, combined with Liverpool's win have seen the Reds shorten to $3.50 to take the title this season for the first time in the Premier League era.